In order to decorate a surface of an article having a complicated three-dimensional surface, there has been used a water pressure transfer method in which a water pressure transfer film having a print pattern of non-water solubility on a water-soluble film (carrier film) is floated on a water surface in a transfer tub, the water-soluble film of the water pressure transfer film is made wet with water, the article (pattern-transferred object) is forced underwater in the transfer tub while it contacts the print pattern of the water pressure transfer film and the print pattern of the water pressure transfer film is transferred onto the surface of the article using a water pressure generated against the surface of the article when it is forced underwater whereby a decoration layer is formed.
Generally, since the water pressure transfer film is wound in the form of roll with the print pattern printed and dried on the water-soluble film, the ink of the print pattern is kept in the dry state in which the adhesion thereof is lost. Thus, it is required to apply solvent such as an activating agent or thinner to the print pattern of the water pressure transfer film to thereby make the same wet state of the print pattern as the state immediately after being printed (recover the state having the adhesion) before the water pressure transfer is carried out and this processing is usually called activation processing.
The decoration layer thus formed by water pressure transfer on the surface of the article is required to have mechanical or chemical surface protection such as abrasion resistance, solvent resistance, chemical resistance, weather resistance, etc., and to be adhered to the surface of the article with high strength.
The applicant have previously proposed the invention which can form a decoration layer by water pressure transfer while imparting abrasion resistance, solvent resistance, etc. to the decoration layer itself without applying a topcoat layer on the decoration layer (refer to patent Document 1 through 3). According to these methods, the ultraviolet hardening resin composite containing a non-solvent type activation ingredient such as a photo-polymerization monomer for reproducing (recovering) the adhesion of the dried print pattern of the water pressure transfer film is applied to the print pattern of the water pressure transfer film whereby the adhesion of the print pattern is reproduced by the activation ingredient of the ultraviolet hardening resin composite. Furthermore, the water pressure transfer of the print pattern is transferred to the pattern-transferred object in the state where the ultraviolet hardening resin composite permeates the whole print pattern whereby the print pattern and the ultraviolet hardening resin composite are integrally united with each other. Thus, as the ultraviolet hardening resin composite in the print pattern is hardened by ultraviolet-ray irradiation, it will become as if the same state as the state where ultraviolet hardenability is imparted to the decoration layer formed by the print pattern and the chemical and mechanical surface protection such as solvent resistance and abrasion resistance will be imparted to the decoration layer itself.
Also, the applicant have proposed a coating agent (an activating agent) suitable for thus applying an ultraviolet hardening resin composite to a water pressure transfer film to reproduce (recover) the adhesion of the dried print pattern and for making the ultraviolet hardening resin composite permeate the print pattern to thereby intermingle them with each other so that the print pattern and the ultraviolet hardening resin composite is harmonizingly and integrally united in order to impart the ultraviolet hardenability to the print pattern (refer to patent document 4).
The coating agent according to the patent document 4 can improve physical properties such as strength and chemical resistance of the decoration layer formed on the surface of the article by water pressure transfer and can improve the original adhesion property onto the surface of the article to thereby obtain the good decoration layer.
Meantime, the decorated article to which a skin of a user frequently touches is required to have a good tactile feeling (texture) in order to improve the feeling of use. The tactile feeling has various modes in the combination of hardness and softness feeling and a dryness and moisture feeling, but if the softness feeling and the wetness feeling (a feeling of moisture or damp) become predominant, it will become a feeling of warm texture. It is known that the softness feeling is related to the area where an inside of a finger contacts by deforming the surface when pressed by the finger, as the contact area increases, the softness feeling increases and as the back of the fingerprint is stimulated, the wetness feeling becomes damp (refer to the patent document 5).
The following methods will be considered in order to impart the tactile feeling of such a softness feeling or a wetness feeling to the article decorated by water pressure transfer.
(1) A method of applying a topcoat containing the paint imparting such tactile feeling to the water pressure transfer article.
(2) A method of adding a tactile feeling imparting layer having a wetness feeling and a softness feeling under the print pattern of the transfer film.
However, since the method for forming the decoration layer on the surface of the article by water pressure transfer while activating the print pattern of the transfer film with the ultraviolet hardening resin composite coating agent imparts the chemical and mechanical surface protection functions such as solvent resistance and abrasion resistance to the decoration layer itself, the topcoat itself is unnecessary and therefore the tactile feeling such as the softness feeling or the wetness feeling cannot be imparted by the method (1).
In the method (2), since the transfer film has a multi-layer structure because of the tactile feeling imparting layer under the print pattern, when water pressure transfer is carried out after activating the ink of the print pattern of the transfer film, it will be anticipated that the wet state of the print pattern changes due to the tactile feeling imparting layer, which causes the transfer of the print pattern to be undesirably influenced. Particularly, since the surface of the surface of the water pressure transfer article is covered with the tactile feeling imparting layer, there is a possibility that the surface protection function of the print pattern itself will be damaged by the tactile feeling imparting layer.
There is preferably formed fine unevenness on the surface of a decoration layer from a viewpoint of the mechanism of the wetness feeling for simulating slots of the fingerprint by the fine unevenness on the surface of the decoration layer. In order to form such unevenness, there has been proposed a method of water pressure transfer method for imparting the fine unevenness on the decoration layer by adding in an activating agent anon-smoothing agent such as wood flour, plastic powder, rubber crumb, minerals powder and pigments to adhere the non-smoothing agent to the printing surface of the transfer film when activating the dried print pattern of the transfer film by the activating agent (refer to Patent Document 6).
However, the activating agent used in this method is a conventional solvent type activating agent generally used and has no surface protection function on the decoration layer, which is different from the activating agent having the main ingredient of the ultraviolet hardening resin composite which does not need the solvent as shown in Patent Documents 1 through 4. If the topcoat is applied on the decoration layer in order to impart the surface protection function, then the unevenness feeling is lost and therefore both the unevenness feeling and the surface protection function cannot be imparted. Also, the application of the topcoat on the decoration layer causes the uneven portions to be disposed within the topcoat, which never deforms the uneven portions even if they are pressed by the fingers and therefore there cannot be obtained the composite feeling of the wetness feeling and the softness feeling on the decoration layer. This art is the one in which some surface coarseness feeling obtained through the topcoat applied to impart some surface unevenness to the decoration surfaces such as a wood grain pattern and a marble pattern, etc. and to obtain the tactile feeling similar to the feeling of the surface of actual wood, mineral, etc. and never the one in which the tactile feeling such as the softness feeling and the wetness feeling is imparted to the surface of the decorated article.
Even if the art of Patent Document 6 tries to be applied to the method of forming the decoration layer to the surface of the article by activating the print pattern of the transfer film with the ultraviolet hardening resin composite coating agent and carrying out the water pressure transfer, the non-smoothing agent intervenes between the article and the decoration layer and therefore the property of adhesion between the decoration layer and the article will be deteriorated and in addition thereto, with the more amount of the non-smoothing agent enlarging the more unevenness feeling, the adhesion of the decoration layer to the article will be deteriorated and as a result the art of Patent Document 6 cannot be simply applied.